Sorry for the delayed update, gang–like a moron, I hit the wrong button and this was slated to go live on July 6th, 2010. Which would have been quite a long time to wait.
This is page 600 of Digger. Once again, let me add that while I am terribly proud of Digger, if I ever get the notion to do a webcomic epic again, somebody take me out in the backyard and shoot me.
*shoots Ursula with a water pistol* Elf vs. Orc! 😀
push is about to come to shove…we knew that demon was up to no good, and sure enough…
Ursula, maybe you won’t want to do another webcomic epic, but this one is fabulous and i don’t want it to end (while on the other hand i can’t wait to see how it’s going to play out!).
…. and *that* would be the sound of the other shoe, dropping. Guess we’re in it good and proper now.
Poor kid.
I spent the last few days reading through Digger, start to now. An amazing and epic work. I’m hooked!
Sorry, Ursula, but if you’re talking to the wrong people. If you ever get the notion to do a webcomic epic again, we are far more likely to take you into the backyard and buy you cheesecake. Somehow. In your backyard.
… We will OPEN A CHEESECAKE STAND in your backyard specifically so we can buy you cheesecake there in the event of you starting another webcomic epic. That is how we roll. Do not look for help from us.
I dunno, opening a cheesecake stand in her backyard seems quite helpful to me.
Hey, if that’s how we roll…. nothing more to say.
Ursula, you are doomed to a future of conveniently-obtainable (and delicious!) cheesecake (because you know, and we know, that your fertile imagination will not be quelled).
You may commence squealing at any time.
Hmm, well, okay, but won’t it make it be more difficult to draw the webcomic with a gaping bullet wound?
I will not shoot you if you do another webcomic epic.
I would likely donate to fund it, though.
To comment on the content for a change …
The whole “tempt you with wonderful things, but first you have to do something horrible for me” schtik seems unlikely to work in this context. Much better would be “here, this wonderful thing is a gift to you … see, I’m your friend … here’s another gift … now would you do me some tiny favor in return (and I mean *actually* tiny) … here’s yet another gift for you … and now that I’ve got my hooks in you, *NOW* you have to do something horrible for me.”
Seems to me Sweetgrass Voice is being a very poor student of psychology here–not an asset for a tempter demon. Perhaps he’s just in a big big hurry, ‘cos he knows he’s in serious trouble.
Hehehe, I bet you’re getting that notion to start another webcomic RIGHT NOW, aren’t you? I said the same thing when I reached page 200 of my own. Now I’m at 300, finished a short story comic, starting another short story, and am scripting a adventure strip. Joooiiiiin us. jooiiinnn the dark side of multiple comicssss!
Coming soon: Squishy the Neurotransmitter – the Epic Webcomic!!!
“Brick Wall, meet Speeding Object. What’s that you say? No, really, his name is *Brick Wall.* Seriously!” I think Sweetgrass!Voice doesn’t have a lot of experience with kids, even demonic ones.
…though I do wish Digger’d given Shadowchild a name. I think it needs one. Names do all sorts of useful things, bindings and ties and groundings and so forth.
I *DO* hope you’ll still compose illustrated short stories!
There is an ongoing assumption that _this_ demon is Sweetgrass Voice. That may not be the case. Just saying.
Folks are right, though. It certainly didn’t put any points into subtlety.
I remember waaaay back when Digger was a style experiment and you had no plans whatsoever to pursue it as a story. No way, no how. I’m so glad you did- it is one of my favorites. Congratulations on 600!
Y’know, I know that doing a webcomic like this must be a tremendous pain, but it’s my past obsession with webcomics, specifically, that led to my current fandom of all your work, in general. So I’m terribly grateful. 🙂
And I agree with CMZero. After this is over I’d be overtaken with uncontrollable bouncy spasms of joy if Elf vs. Orc kept happening. XD
I would suspect the reason Sweatgrass Voice (if that is who it is) isn’t being terribly subtle is that she’s overestimating Shadowchild’s demonic nature and its ability to overrule what little she’s learned about morality and the feelings she has for her friends. Sweetgrass thinks, “This is one of my own, I don’t have to use trickery and deceit, I only need to remind her of what she really is.”
“….slated to go live on July 6th, 2010.”
… I’m so glad that this was fixed. *grin*
Poor Shadowchild! All the answers are right there, but he can’t get them!
Why does it need Shadowchild to eat their shadows?
Why, maybe it thinks THIS is a minor thing, and the other shoe (or its shadow) is yet to drop.
I wonder if gods have tasty shadows?
I like that YAY!
and the fact that shadowchild DOES find eating their shadows wrong.
Being contrary, I suspect a “magician’s force.” Whatever choice Shadowchild makes, that’s what the demon wanted to see. If Shadowchild eats their shadows, the demon’s plans are safe. If it refuses, the demon was testing it. The situation gets even more interesting if Shadowchild gets ready to eat one to see if it’ll be stopped, or offers to eat only some of them.
(Shadowchild needs a gender. Calling a person ‘it’ feels wrong.)
facts about current commentor:
her favourit character is shadowchild
she’s known to feel no need to hide her outbursts of cheerful emotions
she can be loud
ergo
scene 1: commentor starts grinning like a fool, whilst reading comic strip
scene 2: grin becomes malicious
scene 3: satanic chuckle evolving into questionably sane laughter
scene 4: commentor assures the neighbours, that she indeed isn’t castrating black kittens on her pagan altar, then starts looking at apartment listings
Oh, and by the way, I would imagine, that great demons like Sweetgrass voice take very long naps. I mean they aren’t constantly there or at work, or however a demon functions. And Sweetgrass might have slept through tha last few centuries, or was caged there, or couldn’t communicate, etc. Which would give her very little chance to exercise her arts of persuasion. And last but not least: Shadowchild’s a girl? if demons have genders at all..
“if I ever get the notion to do a webcomic epic again, somebody take me out in the backyard and shoot me.”
!! Just for that I’m gonna … go to redwombatstudio.com and buy a print of something. 🙂
Actually, if you get an idea to do another epic webcomic, I’ll encourage you rather than shoot you. But I’m selfish.
And here I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next installment of ‘Irrational Chupacabra.’ Oh well.
I love the panel where Shadowchild says “Yay!”
For some reason I just don’t think this demon is Sweetgrass Voice (though my feelings wont be hurt if Ursala proves me wrong). I’m kind of enjoying imagining the demon trying to answer a series of “Why?” questions from Shadowchild and getting VERY frustrated.
And, why can’t big-demon-who-might-be-Sweetgrass-Voice eat the shadows without the help of Shadowchild?
.. or Shadow child awoke with the start and Digger found herself trying to explain nightmare and the usefullness or not eating unusual foo.. I mean shadow, before going to bed…
Don’t do it, Shadowchild!
On the question of whether this is Sweetgrass:
the image saves with the word Sweetgrass in the name.
These names come from Ms. Vernon I have always thought.
I’m hoping (without much confidence) that there are some actual non-speaking earth or other sorts of worm-type critters snoozin’ nearby…*sigh* so unlikely
Somebody is rusty at temptation…
If you decide to do another webepic, I will definitely join the cheesecake booth brigade. Digger is wonderful.
And, I wonder if Sweetgrass Voice maybe doesn’t know how close Shadowchild and Digger have become. Sweetgrass Voice seems to be having to really work to manifest in the well, where there is clearly a crack between worlds. But, I’m not sure how much of the last 300-400 pages Sweetgrass voice has been able to follow. I think Cornbread is onto something … Sweetgrass Voice thinks Shadowchild is more demonic than he/she/it really is at this point.
“…just kidding! First thing I’ll actually teach you is a sense of humor.”
Barry, I’m going with the reason Sweetgrass can’t eat their shadows is that he’s only an image of Sweetgrass, just like the ghosts of Helix etc were not really there, but were able to manifest their image there.
Zjonni says:
“There is an ongoing assumption that _this_ demon is Sweetgrass Voice. That may not be the case. Just saying.”
It is a fairly safe assumption, considering that we know about Sweetgrass Voice being chained with the god, and possibly unable to manifest anywhere but this monastery. Any other demon would be free to eat shadows himself, without Shadowchild’s help.
Looking back at the depiction of sweetgrass from the myth ( digger.com/?p=184 if you want to see for yourself)
this demon is identical in form to sweetgrass… so given what else we know about it, I think that it’s a good bit more likely than not that this new demon and sweetgrass are one and the same.
I don’t think the demon can kill them himself.
He’s not quite here in person – or, in shadow-demon terms, he’s “stretched” a long, long way. He is most likely attached to the body of the Hyena-god.
When the Shadow-child is stretched too thin, he can’t do anything else. He said so before. Remember the trick where he turns into a giant fanged monster? It looks scary, but makes him basically helpless.
I wonder if shadowchild would want to consult Digger on this moral issue too… “Can I eat you?”
I approve the cheesecake stand idea. mmmm…. cheesecake….
… Sympathy, thy name is not fan-base.
Maybe just nibble at the edges of Murai’s ‘alien’ shadow. Or just gobble the whole ‘alien’ shadow and get done with the shiny darkness business.
… Sorry for posting twice but an interesting thought just occurred to me…
Does this mean that the Sweetgrass Voice is incapable of eating shadows??
….and the Darkness begins….
Congrats on making your 600th panel!
Ursula, Somehow I suspect you get even more fun than us from doing this comic even if only to see how people respond to it.
The only way we might take you point pistol to the backyard is knowing your drawing tools are waiting there already 😉
My theory anyway is *this* is of SV. While still tied to the hyena god so she can not fisically go out, (or eat any shadow), she can _stretch_ her presence through the magic rupture that for some strange coincidence links He Is non-resting place and this temple. Basically she tries to avoid her destiny using assassination by phone ™.
All in all SV always made others do things. She is probably better talking that in a fight, and since in that village Shadow Child showed a *really* big power he is possibly unaware of, I still have plenty of confidence on the outcome of this.
Digger should get out of this world as soon as she can. She came with no shadows, later she *had* a little shadow to be eliminated. Now they are talking of shadows in the three of them.
Pff, you say that now, but you know that when another idea comes along that has to be comics and is too good to pass up, you’ll do it, even if it’s a thousand pages long.
Just hope the next one doesn’t require color.
Would this be a bad point to note that most critters tend not to be able to talk when they are sleeping?
Might Sweetgrass Voice try and convince Shadowchild that this means it is OK to eat them while they are sleeping?
I dunno…I think SV’s temptation techniques might be right on the money here. If he’s been watching Shadowchild all along, he knows that the little thing’s one consuming desire to find out what it is…and also how flexible its moral compass still might be. Easy to assume that he knows his own kind better than a ‘little worm’ would…
…just personally, I’m clinging firmly to the slug’s assurance that Shadowchild will *prevent* a great catastrophe. And I will stay here unless knocked off forcibly by a troll. 🙂
Congratulations, Ursula. It’s been *so* worth all your work thus far.
AHHH Even worse than I thought! Poor Shadowchild Is going to be so conflicted. He needs a hug right now. However, I’m reasonably sure that he won’t do it. I hope. >.>
Given Shadowchild’s yeoman efforts to establish communication with the various things he/she has encountered, I don’t think mere sleep would provide an excuse, even if the other demon argued for it. I think there’s going to be a protracted argument, which should prove entertaining for everyone except the would-be nemesis, who may or may not be Sweetgrass Voice.